Utterson takes a visit to Dr. Jekyll’s and finds him in his laboratory looking extremely ill. To cover up the fact that he and Hyde are linked, Jekyll says that Hyde has left and shall never be seen again “I swear to God I’ll never set eyes on him again”. Dr. Jekyll says this because he thinks he can control Hyde and that he will never be him again but that’s not true. It is a struggle for him. To back up this, Jekyll shows Utterson a letter from Hyde stating that he has means of escape.
On his way out, Utterson runs into Poole and asks him to describe the man who delivered the letter; Poole, taken aback, claims to have no knowledge of any letters being delivered other than the usual mail. He then, talks to his friend, Mr. Guest who is an expert at handwriting and he claims that it is like Dr. Jekyll’s. Utterson is shocked that Jekyll forged a letter for a murderer “‘Henry Jekyll forge for a murderer! ‘ And his blood ran cold in his veins. ” This is when Utterson starts to feel more concern for Jekyll and his acquaintance.
Although Utterson does not like this, he, like many of the Upper-class, tries to avoid the truth and makes excuses for it and does not tell anybody what he knows. This is when the reader starts to believe that something is going on and that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde may have quite a few things in common. As time went on, there was no sight of Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll was starting to get back to his healthier, normal self. This links in very well with the fact that Hyde and Jekyll were “with” each other.
Jekyll started having dinner parties again which both Utterson and Lanyon attend. A few days later however, Utterson goes to visit Jekyll and Poole tells him that “The doctor is confined to the house”. This means that something is wrong with Jekyll and that he is getting back to being unwell again. This repeats and Utterson goes to Lanyon to see if he can learn the reason why Jekyll will not be seen. He goes to find that Lanyon looks incredibly ill and that he has had a great shock and expects to die soon.
“Well, life has been pleasant; I liked it; yes, sir, I used to like it. ” When Utterson mentions that Jekyll also seems ill, Lanyon asks to talk of anything but Jekyll. To him, Jekyll was dead. “I am quite done with that person; and I beg that you will spare me any allusion to one whom I regard as dead. ” He, then, tells him that Utterson will find out after Lanyon is dead and that the letter should not be read under strict conditions until he dies. This means that there is something about Jekyll that is so shocking, it could kill a person.
Utterson and Enfield go on their Sunday walks again and Enfield remarks on the door that Hyde entered to get the cheque. He mentions that he learned that the door is a back entrance to Jekyll’s laboratory. They see Jekyll at a window and he seems to be alright and they talk. After a little while of talking, Jekyll suddenly looks very ill and turns away from the window, distancing himself from them. The window is a symbol in the book. You can’t hide behind a window because there is glass in it and people can see straight through.
So, even though you think that you’re hiding behind something, people can see behind it and see the real you. This chapter is very similar to a chapter in The Man with the Twisted Lip which was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There is an incident at a window where one character pretends to be a beggar but really he is Upper-class but because he was bankrupt, he was making more money as the beggar. He is at a window as the beggar when he sees his wife and screams. She looks up and notices the clothes that he is wearing, and then he disappears suddenly.
“The window was open, and she distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. ” Near to the end, Utterson has a visit from Poole who is at breaking point.
He tells Utterson that he is afraid of foul play and asks Utterson to come with him. The weather reflects the emotions of the characters “It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March… ” It has a chilling atmosphere which is what the characters felt like, with bitter wind to make things worse. Utterson and Poole call to Jekyll in his laboratory but a different voice calls back. This is where the link between Jekyll and Hyde is made. Utterson and Poole break into the laboratory where they find the twitching body of Mr. Hyde who had killed himself and that means, if he killed Hyde, he’s killed Jekyll.
Utterson reads Lanyon’s letter, which explains about Hyde and Jekyll and then he reads Jekyll’s full statement of the case. From here, all the mysteries of the novel unravel themselves. All the events that seem unclear are now explained. With Jekyll’s confession everything falls into place. Jekyll’s meditations on the dual nature of man, which prompt his forays into the experiments that bring forth Hyde, point to the novel’s central question about the nature of the relationship between the good and evil portions of the human soul.
Jekyll summarizes his thoughts on human duality in the statement “It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date . . . I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements. ” By this Jekyll means that humans are half virtuous and half criminal, half moral and half amoral.
Hyde is smaller and younger than Jekyll which could mean that the evil part of Jekyll is less developed than the good part. Hyde’s physical strength, however, may suggest the opposite. Evil can have a superior power. Stevenson suggests the immensity of humanity’s bad impulses which conscience can barely hold. I think that in the end, the point of Jekyll and Hyde’s sins were not as important as Stevenson’s point that the lure of darkness is a huge part of human nature. In a way, everyone is a bit like Jekyll, all trying to keep the Hyde in them under control and to not allow it to escape.
